A Barrhead charity can take over industrial units owned by the council at a minimal rent for 25 years, councillors have agreed.
Barrhead Men’s Shed will pay £1 per year for four units on Robertson Street in a move which, it has been claimed, will secure the future of the organisation.
It will allow the charity to continue offering community woodwork, craft and creative space to local people.
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A council official said the Men’s Shed had asked for a long-term lease at a peppercorn rent as “a number of their funding streams from the National Lottery were coming to an end” in 2022, which “put the future of their facility under threat”.
Currently, the rent is £10,000 per annum but the council official said this has been covered by the council’s environment department and the area’s health and social care partnership. “They aren’t required to make a payment at the moment,” he added.
Officials have reported that, if the properties were leased on the open market, the council could receive between £22,000 to £25,000 per year.
Councils can dispose of land at lower than market rate if the decision would bring economic development, regeneration, public health or social wellbeing benefits.
“Given the charitable nature of the Barrhead Men’s Shed, we believe that the lease would fall into that criteria,” the official said.
However, the move falls outwith council policy which allows £1 rents for 52 weeks before reverting to a market rate. The official added: “What I would note however, the negotiations of the renewed terms of the lease did begin in 2019, some three years earlier than the implementation of the policy in April 2022.”
Cllr Katie Pragnell, Labour, said: “I think it’s clear that the Men’s Shed in Barrhead do an excellent job and serve the community of Barrhead very well. I would be happy with the 25-year lease at £1 per year.
“I think that’s appropriate, I think we should be doing all we can to support our charities in East Renfrewshire.”
In a letter to the council, the charity had said the shed is “an important part of our members’ lives and any threat of closure is a major source of anxiety”.
“We need a long lease to remove that threat; provide the security that will enable us to invest in facilities beyond the workshop that we currently provide; and allow us confidently to publicise our offering to attract others in need of our services.”
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